as a bird, indulged by her kind, and by Providence
also, till joy and grace, beauty and health, faith and hope live
abundant in her, and you are the beneficiary of it all. Her society
hereafter you must control. May I become your friend, and let my love
for your wife recommend me to your confidence, as you to mine and to my
prayers?"

"Have I another friend already?" exclaimed Milburn, his voice quivering.
"What wealth she brings me never known before! William, you will be ever
welcome to me."

They clasped hands upon it, and old Samson Hat, sitting back, was heard
to chuckle aloud such a warming laugh, that Meshach's response to it, in
a sudden pallid shivering, seemed slightly out of keeping. He was
recalled, however, by the entrance of Judge Custis with his daughter,
and her maid, Virgie.

Vesta was very pale, but neither shrinking nor negative. On the
contrary, she supported her father rather than received his support, and
Milburn saw the Judge's worn, helpless face, with the pride faded from
it, and pity for his daughter absorbing every other feeling of
depression.

He wore his best cloth suit, with the coat tails falling to his knees
behind, the body cut square to the hips, and the collar raised high upon
his stock of white enamelled English leather. His low-buttoned vest
exposed his shirt-buttons of crystal and gilt, and a ruffle, ironed by
Roxy's slender hands with nimble touches, parted down the middle like
sea foam on shell, and similar ruffles at the wrists were clasped by
chain buttons of pearl and silver. His vest was of figured Marseilles
stuff, and gaiters of the same material partly covered his shoes; and
his heavy seal, with his coat of arms upon it, fell from a pale ribbon
at his fob. Debtor though he was, and answering at the bar of the church
to a heavy personal and family judgment, his large and flowing lines of
body, deeply cut chin, full eyes, and natural height and grace of
stature made him a marked and noble presence anywhere.

Vesta Custis, dropping off a mantle of blue velvet at a touch of her
maid, stood in a party dress of white silk, the neck, shoulders, and
arms bare; and, as she halted a minute in the aisle, Virgie struck the
cloth sandals from her mistress's white slippers of silk, and, removing
her hood of home-embroidered cloth, a veil of white fell to her train.
The dingy light from the lamps of whale-oil gathered, like poor folks'
children's marvelling eyes, around the pair of